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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (542053)	2/18/2004 4:10:03 PM
From: DizzyG	Respond to of 769668

Too bad none of the Dem candidates have those qualities, Kenneth.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (542053)	2/18/2004 4:11:41 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769668

Campaign Finance Follies Democrats owe Bradley Smith an apology. Wednesday, February 18, 2004 12:01 a.m. Democrats in Congress owe Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith an apology. The man they once called "Dracula" and tried to banish from Washington may now save their ability to keep raising millions of dollars in "soft money" to defeat President Bush this November. And properly so. The FEC meets today to consider whether to rein in the nation's newest political fund-raising machines, known in Beltway parlance as "527s" (after a section in the IRS code). The 2002 campaign-finance "reform" has handcuffed political parties, so these groups have become everyone's favorite new outlet for raising unlimited cash for advertising and political activities. Liberal activists have exploited the 527 trend first, with George Soros and other high rollers pledging millions to a network of groups that amounts to a shadow Democratic Party. All of which has made for some amusing, and embarrassing, reversals of principle. Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi, who for years have denounced the "corruption" of large political contributions, have suddenly discovered an intimate connection between financial donations and free speech. Liberal pundits who have devoted careers to taking dictation from Common Cause by denouncing fat cat donors are suddenly mum about 527s.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (542053)	2/18/2004 4:14:03 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769668

Howard Dean learned this the hard way during the recent Iowa caucuses, where he found himself pounded by TV ads sponsored by a mysterious 527 calling itself Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values. The ads took the bark off the Vermont governor and certainly contributed to his defeat. At the time voters speculated that the group was allied with Dick Gephardt, but only recently have we all learned that one of the men behind that 527 was none other than former New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli, who just so happens to be a fund-raiser for John Kerry, his old Senate pal. Readers may recall that Mr. Torricelli was run out of the Senate for his fund-raising misdeeds. The answer to this isn't for reformers to chase their tails with ever more fund-raising rules. The solution consistent with political accountability and American traditions is to let everyone contribute whatever they want, subject only to immediate disclosure on the Internet. Of course this is what Mr. Smith has been trying to tell them all along.